Jesus Franco was born in Madrid Spain on May 12th, 1936. He began his filmmaking career in 1954 as an assistant director on the Spanish film Comedians. In 1959 Franco would make his directorial debut with a film titled We Are 18 Years Old. Early on in his career Franco’s films were inspired by the Universal horror films and Pulp fiction novels from his youth. His most fruitful and acclaimed era as a director spanned between 1968 and 1973.

Franco would enjoy some moderate success while working with producer Erwin C. Dietrich in the late 1970’s and in the early 1980’s with Golden Films international after returning to Spain after working many years abroad. Later on in his career Franco would experiment with shooting films on video and most of his films made in the last twenty five years are considering his weakest work as a filmmaker. Female Vampire made in 1973 would mark the beginning of Jess Franco’s longest collaboration with Lina Romay who over the course of the last thirty five years has worked with Jess Franco on about one hundred films.

In 1992 Franco would help finish editing Orson Welles Don Quixote a film that Jess Franco had shot the battle sequences for three decades before. Over the last six decades Jess Franco has directed over two hundred films and worked in just about every film genre. Besides his main passion directing Franco is also a man of many talents including cinematographer, composer, writer, editor and actor